In launching a successful SMS campaign, the initial engagement with the consumer is the most vital. Consequently, a clear and enticing call-to-action is essential; the call-to-action is your prospective consumer’s gateway into your client database and campaign. If the call-to-action is too confusing, uses a keyword not clearly tied to your product, or does not offer a strong customer incentive, it will fail to generate interest and opt-ins. In general, it is a good idea to use keywords clearly connected to your product instead of numbers or abbreviations that may confuse consumers, lead to texting errors, and obscure the connection between the campaign and its affiliated promotions.
Contest and Poll Calls-to-Action Create Best Segue into SMS Marketing
Since this initial call-to-action may be the one and only chance a company gets to reach a particular consumer through its mobile platform, marketers must consider how to optimize the message for the best opt-in rate. Case studies in SMS marketing show over and over that contests and polls have extremely high success rates for growing client databases.
Voting
Text-to-vote campaigns allow consumers to engage with a brand by identifying a personal preference, and they offer the company a double reward: the voter not only opts in to the marketing campaign, but he or she reveals a personal preference that allows the company to make future marketing to that person more focused. The more you know about your customers’ tastes, the better you can develop your marketing strategies. Voting/polling campaigns can be regional or national, and have been frequently used over the last few years in fast food restaurants, retail establishments, and professional sporting venues to great success.
There are lots of examples that illustrate the popularity of text-to-vote campaigns, including a recently-published article in Mobile Commerce Daily about Bloomingdale’s Big Window Challenge in which passers-by were invited to text their vote for their favorite of three studio vignettes, as displayed in the windows of the Lexington Avenue store.1 The mobile marketing industry is seeing increasing interest in text-to-vote SMS campaigns among brands of all sizes.
Companies who choose a voting campaign should make voting choices very clear and should have a clearly-stated timeframe for the poll to take place so that users know when they can expect to see results. Users who opt in via a vote should receive a prompt message back with added incentive to remain in the campaign for longer term.
Contests
SMS-supported contests also offer excellent results, even if the prize is modest. Again, though, a clearly established timeframe for entrants and an announcement of a winner are necessary to give credibility and to keep people from opting out too soon.
The Legends in Concert Series saw quick success with a recent SMS contest in which 20,000 email subscribers received an email inviting them to text a keyword in order to receive 2 VIP tickets, as well as other prizes. The contest saw a 30% opt-in rate in only 72 hours.
When creating a contest through SMS, make sure that no text messaging fees will be charged for entry. This includes premium text messaging fees, which should not be attached to a mobile sweepstakes. Even though it is obvious, it may merit occasional reminding: Never advertise a product or service (including mobile contest entry) as “free” if there are associated costs.
TextBoard offers campaigns for both contests and voting that can track results for you in real time and segment users based on results. You then have the option of following up with just those users who voted for a specific option. Contests with exciting prizes tend to spread quickly among users and their friends, creating a potentially huge number of opt-ins in a very small amount of time. Encouraging them on social media channels will spread them even faster.
Integrating web or email platforms into your mobile marketing plan must be done carefully.
One important thing to remember with mobile voting and contest campaigns is that they while can encourage users to visit a website, they should not require it for contest entry or coupon redemption. While the number of smartphone users has grown considerably (recent Nielsen estimates say 21% of wireless subscribers in the US have a smartphone2), there is still a large number of people who do not use their mobile devices for web browsing, and having to remember to visit a website later is likely to create immediate disinterest. For best results, keep your contests and polls simple and the rewards immediate.
